The Warriors, finally complete, welcome the Bulls
Two teams who have won thrilling victories have the opportunity to demonstrate which one has more left in the tank when the Chicago Bulls visit the Warriors of the Golden State Thursday evening in San Francisco.
The Bulls will look for a third straight victory in their four-game West swing after beating the Utah Jazz 119-117 on the road in a tense affair Wednesday night.
DeMar DeRozan had 29 points and Coby White 25 for Chicago, but they were pressured by 38 and 42 minutes of action, respectively, in this tightly contested game.
The Bulls’ other three starters — Ayo Dosunmu (36), Alex Caruso (34) and Nikola Vucevic (31) — also played 31 minutes or more in a game, with neither team leading by more than 12 points.
As if the big minutes weren’t enough, several Bulls – including assistant coach Chris Fleming – found themselves involved in two late brawls. Chicago’s Torrey Craig and Utah’s John Collins were called for technical fouls, but there were no ejections. Craig was on the bench and did not play due to injury.
“Chris Fleming, I think, was trying to keep everyone from separating,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “And then from there it kind of escalated…We have to be better in those moments.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, responded to an embarrassing loss in Boston on Sunday with arguably their best effort of the season in a 125-90 bombing of the visiting Milwaukee Bucks.
Stephen Curry led the way with 29 points, but the most impressive performance of the night came from Trayce Jackson-Davis. The rookie recorded four blocks, including two against Giannis Antetokounmpo in an electrifying five-second burst in the third quarter.
Steve Kerr managed to get his 15 players in uniform involved, none for more than 31 minutes, on a night when the return of Andrew Wiggins after a four-game absence for personal reasons put the Golden State coach on deck. for the first time this season.
Kerr warned his guys beforehand that the playing time they might have gotten recently while Chris Paul and Gary Payton II were injured might not be available at the moment.
“Just do the math,” he said. “There are going to be people who are left out of the rotation. There’s no way around that. So we’re just trying to do what we think is right based on how we’ve played, and who has played, and I played well.”
Veteran big men Kevon Looney and Dario Saric appeared to be two casualties of max depth on Wednesday as they played just six and four minutes, respectively. Meanwhile, Moses Moody, who was promoted from third string to the starting lineup with Wiggins out, was used with the second unit and got 21 minutes.
Seven of the 10 reserves who appeared in a game against the Bucks got into the scoring column, while all 10 posted positive plus/minus totals.
The Warriors, who have won 12 of 15 games, will look to sweep the Bulls in the two-game series. Klay Thompson (30), Curry (27) and Jonathan Kuminga (24) combined for 81 points when Golden State won 140-131 in Chicago on January 12.
DeRozan had 39 points in 41 minutes for the Bulls in that one.
–Field level media
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